Leading Brands in Canada’s Dining & Restaurants Category: Q1 2025 Overview

In the competitive landscape of Canada’s Dining & Restaurants category, several brands have distinguished themselves as leaders by maintaining substantial digital audiences across their websites and apps. This article examines the performance of Tim Hortons, McDonald’s, and Starbucks from Q4 2024 to Q1 2025, focusing on their audience trends, app engagement, and advertising strategies.

Tim Hortons

Tim Hortons stands out with a robust digital presence through its website and the Tim Hortons App.

• Audience Trends: The monthly deduplicated audience for Tim Hortons remained stable above 5.4M throughout the quarter, with web-only visitors peaking in March at approximately 613K. Notably, the app-only audience showed consistent growth, reaching over 5.1M in March.

• App Engagement: The Tim Hortons app saw a steady increase in monthly active users, surpassing 2.1M by March, reflecting a growing preference for mobile interactions.

• Ad Spend & Channels: Tim Hortons invested significantly in advertising, with a peak monthly spend of over $2.7M in December. The brand focused heavily on Instagram and Facebook, generating substantial impressions, particularly on Instagram.

McDonald’s

McDonald’s continues to be a dominant player with its website and McDonald’s App.

• Audience Trends: McDonald’s saw a consistent monthly deduplicated audience of around 5M in Q1 2025, with a notable increase in web-only visitors in March, reaching nearly 470K.

• App Engagement: The app’s monthly active users hovered around 1.3M, with a slight uptick in February, indicating stable user engagement.

• Ad Spend & Channels: McDonald’s maintained a high monthly ad spend, peaking at over $4.1M in December. The brand leveraged multiple channels, including TikTok and Instagram, to maximize reach and impressions.

Starbucks

Starbucks has effectively engaged its audience via its website and the Starbucks App.

• Audience Trends: Starbucks maintained a steady monthly deduplicated audience of over 2.4M, with web-only visitors remaining relatively stable, peaking at 351K in December.

• App Engagement: The app saw a consistent user base, with monthly active users slightly exceeding 940K during the quarter.

• Ad Spend & Channels: Starbucks’ monthly ad spend was substantial, peaking in December at over $1.6M. The brand focused on Instagram and Facebook, achieving significant impressions, particularly on Instagram.

Conclusion

The performance of Tim Hortons, McDonald’s, and Starbucks during Q1 2025 underscores their strategic use of digital platforms to maintain robust audience engagement across Canada. Sensor Tower’s comprehensive data, combining web insights, app performance, and advertising analytics, offers unparalleled insights into these leading brands’ cross-platform strategies. By leveraging Sensor Tower’s offerings, businesses can gain critical insights into user behavior, optimizing their digital presence effectively.

For more detailed insights, explore Sensor Tower’s Web Insights, App Performance Insights, and Pathmatics products.